I apologize for that, Mr. Speaker. Seeing the minister was so impressed with the farm issues, it got to my heart. I hope to simmer down a bit.
The railways are required by law to move these grains according to the Western Grain Transportation Act. Why do we not see them doing it? It amazes me when I see stats that the turnaround on a hopper car today is actually a little longer than was required in 1923. Is this today's modern system that is supposed to help farmers survive?
With the negotiations having gone on for over a year, this government failed to pass legislation to order the west coast strikers back to work. We lost 12 days. Not only that, I was told that during the Easter holidays there was again a four day shutdown. There are 40 ships sitting in Vancouver drawing demurrage charges on grain that cannot be shipped. When is this government going to take action on this?
That has dealt a tremendous blow to the farm sector in western Canada. Shipping $100 a tonne feed wheat to the U.S. which takes twice as long as putting a car to Vancouver with $500 a tonne canola just does not seem to make sense. When are we going to get the right type of direction from some of our farm organizations or our government to solve these problems? Farmers need that cash to put in another crop. Farm programs cannot look after all these requirements. We have to ship that grain. We have to get our money out of that grain. I appreciate that the hon. minister is listening and I hope that something can be done about it.
The other serious issue coming out of this whole system of not delivering grain is the lost sales. Japan today is encouraging Australian farmers to plant more canola because the Canadian system cannot deliver the product after it is grown. How long can our economy continue to exist in western Canada if we do
not start supporting the farmer who produces more efficiently every year and then is not allowed to sell to get the funds out of it?
It amazes me sometimes what modernization, with all the computer technology and the efficiencies we have built into our systems, has done to us. I will give one little example of an experience I had. This is not with grain transportation.
Being a farmer I like to save as much money as I can because I know I will need it. Just before I came back to Ottawa two months ago, I got a telephone bill for $27.65. I wrote the cheque for the due date on the bill. I said to my wife: "Would you please drop it off at the telephone office so it is there directly and I can save myself the 45 cents".
Lo and behold, a month later I got a returned cheque with a notice on it saying "insufficient funds", charging me a $15 service charge for a $27 telephone bill. It is a provincial utility. I went to see the banker, furious as can be. I have never had less than $2,000 in that bank account.
Somebody had punched the wrong figure and it showed there were insufficient funds. To hide their mistake, they wrote out a little slip which said: "Due to insufficient funds". It took me a month and probably $30 worth of telephone calls to find out where the problem was. Is this progress?
I said to my wife: "I know what I am going to do with the next telephone bill. I am going to put a stamp on it, mail it in Morden because it will take the postal service at least six months to figure out it is supposed to be delivered to Morden. It will travel all across Canada. They will cut off my telephone before I get back. Then at least I will have peace and quiet this summer with Stats Canada phoning me every month wanting to know how much grain I have left in my bins". There is a way of getting around this system, but how long can we continue to do it?
I apologize for the problems I caused you, Mr. Speaker. Forgive me. I hope the hon. minister does listen to this.